TERRORIST GROUPS

JEMAAH ISLAMIYAH (JI)

BACKGROUND

Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is an Indonesia-based clandestine terrorist network formed in the early 1990s to establish an Islamic state encompassing southern Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei, and the southern Philippines. Its operatives, who trained in camps in Afghanistan and the southern Philippines, began conducting attacks in 1999. The network’s existence was discovered in late 2001 after Singaporean authorities disrupted a cell that was planning to attack targets associated with the US Navy. JI is responsible for a series of lethal bombings targeting Western interests in Indonesia and the Philippines from 2000-2005, including attacks in 2002 against two nightclubs in Bali that killed 202 people; the 2003 car bombing of the JW Marriott hotel in Jakarta that killed 12; the 2004 truck bombing of the Australian Embassy that killed 11; and the 2005 suicide bombing of three establishments in Bali that killed 22. A JI splinter group led by Noordin Mat Top in July 2009 conducted suicide bombings at two hotels in Jakarta.

Jemaah Islamiya flag

Southeast Asian governments since 2002 have arrested more than 300 suspected terrorists, significantly degrading JI’s network. Thai authorities detained the network’s operations chief in 2003. Indonesian police killed JI’s most experienced bombmaker in 2005 and arrested its two senior leaders in mid-2007. Malaysian authorities arrested two senior JI operatives in Kuala Lumpur in early 2008 and in April 2009 recaptured fugitive Singapore JI leader Mas Selamat Kasteri, who escaped from his Singaporean prison cell in early 2008. Indonesian police in September 2009 killed Noordin Mat Top.

Since 2009, JI has been overshadowed by the activities of its splinter groups and other Indonesia-based terrorists, some of whom are experienced operatives previously affiliated with JI; others are convicted terrorists who completed prison sentences and have since resumed their activities. Indonesian terrorist Umar Patek—arrested by Pakistani authorities in Abbotabad in January 2011 and repatriated seven months later—was convicted in June 2012 for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In November 2012, Philippine security forces killed senior Indonesian JI leader Sanusi.

Content Notes

Spelling of arabic names and terms

While there is no universally accepted transliteration of Arabic names and terms, this Counterterrorism Guide Web site adheres to a transliteration system that is generally used throughout the US Government. In this system, the letters “u” and “a” are preferred over “o” and “e.” For example, the name of the al-Qa‘ida operative who was detained on 1 March 2003 is Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, not Sheikh Mohammed. We have retained, however, the name variants and spellings used on the Rewards for Justice and FBI Web pages; these are designed for easy recognition and therefore do not strictly conform to these rules.

Islamic calendar

The Islamic calendar is based on the movement and observation of the moon. The Islamic year contains 12 months, none of which can exceed 30 days. Each month starts when the lunar crescent is first seen after a new moon. Because 12 lunar months multiplied by 29.53 days equals 354.36 days, the Islamic calendar will always be approximately 11 days shorter than the Western, or Gregorian, calendar. For example, 1 Muharram, the first day of Islamic year 1432 (known in the West by the Latin term Anno Hegirae, or A.H.), falls on 8 December 2010; in A.H. 1433, 1 Muharram falls on 27 November 2011. As explained in the footnotes of the printed edition of the Counterterrorism Calendar, holidays begin the sundown of the previous day. Because of lunar observation and differences in time zones, the observance of Islamic holidays may vary from region to region.

Map boundaries

Boundary representation is not necessarily authoritative.

The information in this website is valid as of 15 August 2014. This website contains only information in the public domain that has been verified and disseminated by US Government sources